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Book FOR[U]MS: 2000/2001 BOOK ARTIST SPEAKER SERIES

Sculptor, book artist, critic, and art theorist Buzz Spector is one of the nation's premier contemporary artists making use of the book as an expressive medium. Since the mid-1970s, Spector has produced numerous bookworks, including his recent books The Position of the Author (Visual Studies Workshop, 1993) and A Passage (Granary Books, 1994). In 1978 Spector co-founded White Walls, a Chicago-based magazine of writings by artists, and served as the publication's editor until 1987. He has written extensively on contemporary art and culture for a variety of publications, including Art Forum, Art Issues, Dialogue, and The New Art Examiner, and is the author of The Book Maker's Desire (Umbrella Editions, 1995), a collection of critical essays on artists' books and other topics in contemporary art. In his own work, Spector frequently manipulates books to explore the relationship between the physical and conceptual identities of books. In several works produced since 1981, Spector has methodically torn out the pages of books. This systematic excision obliterates portions of the texts he selects while transforming the books that contained them into objects of displacement and forgetting. Through this process of alteration, Spector brings focus to the physical and conceptual dichotomy of books--books may be used conceptually or as sculpture, but not always both at the same time.

Buzz Spector is currently a professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Buzz Spector also will be conducting an informal discussion with three UWM Visual Art classes (Book Arts; Relief Printing; Structures) on Wednesday, October 18, 8:30 - 11:30 am, in the Library Conference Center, 4th Floor, Golda Meir Library. Although this time is primarily for students in these classes, this is an open session for anyone interested in attending. Buzz Spector is a superb artist and teacher with strong interdisciplinary interests and approaches.

This program is co-sponsored by the Golda Meir Library, the Friends of the Golda Meir Library,
the UWM Department of Visual Art, and the Cardinal Stritch University Department of Art.

For more information, please contact Max Yela, Special Collections, Golda Meir Library; or Richard Zauft, UWM Department of Visual Art, (414) 229-4258.

Book artist, educator, performance artist, and artist's book dealer, Marshall Weber will offer a slide presentation on the activities of the New York-based book arts cooperative Booklyn Artists Alliance. A former Madison resident, Weber co-founded Booklyn two years ago (along with fellow Madison expatriates Christopher Wilde, Dylan Graham, and Mark Wagner, among others). Booklyn has developed rapidly into a significant book arts presence, with educational and consulting services offered worldwide, and a highly successful distribution service representing both emerging and established book artists, such as Walter Hamady, Caren Heft, Jim Lee, Ruth Lingen, Jeff Morin, JoAnna Poehlmann, and Margaret Sunday. The collaborative book work of the Booklyn Alliance is also generating considerable attention. For more information, contact Max Yela, Special Collections, at (414) 229-4345, or by e-mail at maxyela@gml.lib.uwm.edu.

Marshall Weber will also offer two events at Woodland Pattern Book Center (720 East Locust Street, Milwaukee): "Bad JewJew," a spoken word performance on the conundrum of Weber's religious identity, Sunday, February 18 at 2:00 pm ($6/$5 members or in advance); and "'zine (r)Evolution," an adult workshop exploring artists 'zines and their relation to literature, traditional bookmaking, and desktop publishing, Tuesday, February 20, 7:00 - 10:00 pm ($30/$25 members). For more information, contact Woodland Pattern at (414) 263-5001, or by e-mail at woodlandpattern@execpc.com.

 

CLARISSA SLIGH Co-sponsored by Special Collections, Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Friday, March 9, 2001, 7:00 pm Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 East Locust Street, Milwaukee

Clarissa Sligh is a noted African American book artist who creates biographical and autobiographical narratives using photographs and other visual media. Her current work explores concepts based on intersections of history, memory and cultural representation. Sligh will offer an artist talk at Woodland Pattern Book Center as part of the Book FOR[u]Ms series on Friday, March 9, 7:00 pm. Her remarks will focus on an exhibit featuring two of her works: a photographic documentary entitled "Jake in Transition from Female to Male" and her artist's book "Voyage(r): A Tourist Map to Japan." The exhibit will be on view at Woodland Pattern February 23-May 31, 2001. In "Jake in Transition," Sligh uses photographs and interviews to document the sex change process of Deborah/Jake from female to male. While making the documentary, Sligh also had to confront her own feelings and concepts about sexuality, gender identity, intimacy, and sexual and emotional boundaries. In "Voyage(r)," Sligh presents the revelations afforded by foreign travel through the experience of her own trip to Japan.

Clarissa Sligh will also offer a workshop at Woodland Pattern on "Performance for Camera: Gender, Race & Art," Saturday, March 12, 1:00-5:00 pm ($40/$35 members). For more information, contact Woodland Pattern at (414) 263-5001, or by e-mail at woodlandpattern@execpc.com.